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In brief: A second crypto-investor has been arrested over the alleged kidnapping and torture of a man by captors who wanted to steal the password for his Bitcoin account. The incident was the latest in a series of global kidnappings targeting crypto millionaires.
William Duplessie, 32, turned himself in to authorities yesterday. He was arrested in connection to the kidnapping and torture of 28-year-old Italian national Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, who escaped from a townhouse in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood.
Duplessie is listed as the co-founder and head of sourcing at Pangea Blockchain Fund and an investor in other blockchain-based companies.
Carturan, who was found bloodied and barefoot, sought help from a traffic agent upon his escape. He later told police that he had been held against his will for almost three weeks, during which time he had been tied up with electrical tape, pistol whipped, cut on the leg with a saw, hung off a roof ledge, forced to smoke crack cocaine, shocked with a taser while his feet were placed in water, and threatened with a chainsaw. Carturan also had threats made against his family as his attackers demanded he reveal his password for his bitcoin wallet, worth millions of dollars.
When detectives searched the townhouse, they found a saw, crack cocaine, chicken wire, t-shirts with pictures of the alleged victim with the crack cocaine pipe in his mouth, body armor, night vision goggles, ballistic helmets, polaroid pictures of Carturan with a firearm pointed to his head, and firearm ammunition. There was also blood in several locations where Carturan said he had been tortured.
Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, chi è il turista italiano rapito a New York e cosa c’entrano le criptovalute https://t.co/30Y38zZgf4 pic.twitter.com/zR4SenZMrf
– Decripto.org (@Decripto_org) May 25, 2025
Police arrested two suspects on Friday. One was 37-year-old John Woeltz, who is described as a blockchain investor from Kentucky and now involved in the state’s cryptomininig industry. He was renting the townhouse where Carturan was allegedly being held for between $30,000 and $40,000 per month. The other suspect was a 24-year-old woman named Beatrice Folchi, who was later released after the Manhattan DA’s Office declined to prosecute her pending further investigation.
Carturan told police he came to New York from Italy on 6 May. He alleges that after Duplessie and Woeltz lured him to the house, Woeltz took his passport and the pair held him captive for 17 days. Carturan said he escaped when the men went to get his laptop after he agreed to give them his password.
This incident comes after a spate of kidnappings across France and Western Europe targeting cryptocurrency investors. The most recent incident involved the owner of a crypto marketing firm having his finger cut off by attackers.
